The North Korean military on Tuesday fired artillery rockets into waters near the Northern Limit Line, a de facto inter-Korean sea border, during its live-fire drills, further ratcheting up tensions on the peninsula.

The drills came some five hours after the North sent a fax notification to Seoul of the plan to stage the drills near its islands of Wollaedo and Jangjaedo, near South Korea’s frontline islands.

The drills are the latest in a recent series of saber-rattling moves by Pyongyang including a live-ammunition exercise late last month in which it fired some 100 artillery shells south of the NLL.

The JCS said that the South Korean military has told residents on the frontline islands and fishing crews to evacuate to safer areas, and that it has put its personnel on standby for possible provocations.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)